Do-it-yourself remerchandising projects

How long has it been since you stood back and looked at your store through the eyes of your customers?

How long has it been since you carefully evaluated your competitors and the new gas / convenience and convenience stores in the market and compared what you are doing to their offer?

Chances are if you have carried out both of these tasks lately you have probably realized that you need to do some remerchandising to better serve the needs of your customers, to make your store more competitive, and to grow your business.

No matter what the age of your store, even of your fixtures are old, and even if you know you really need a more complete renovation, there are a number of smaller DIY remerchandising projects that you can undertake in the short term to improve your sales for the approaching busy summer season.

Start with the outside of the store and get rid of all of the old, outdated and damaged signs that are visible in your window, and are hurting the image of your store.

Do the same thing inside the store and get rid of old temporary cardboard displays that are cluttering up your store and restricting the aisles.

Review every product that is on your cash desk and ask your self the following questions:

Why is it on the cash desk and how long has it been there?

How many dollars does it generate each week in sales and profits and does it justify its space?

Where else could it be displayed?

Do you have the best selling products in the best selling position?

The objective of this exercise is to clean up the cash desk, provide more room for your customers, and make the cash desk merchandising more effective and productive.

Review the traffic flow in the store, (where do your customers most often travel) to determine if you have dead spots and whether there is anything you can do to change your existing fixtures to improve the traffic flow.

Readjust your merchandising to make sure you have impulse oriented products like confectionery and snacks in the high traffic areas.

Get rid of the dead products in your store that are no longer selling.

Review the space that you give each category, and expand the space of those categories that are growing and decrease the space of those that are slowing down.

Consolidate categories together in one area so your customers can find like products together. (Many stores have bagged candy in several locations so it is tough for the customers to see the entire assortment at one time.)

Look at your wall area to determine if there are opportunities to add slatwall and merchandise unproductive space.

Review each fixture and rack to see if you can tighten up your displays to add additional products and improve the impact of the displays.

These are some relatively simple activities that you can do on your own but that will improve your merchandising and generate additional sales.